Chapter Text
The viau had thinned out but occasionally one still flashed across the sky. Everyone else had gone down from the train's roof into their compartments, but Tovo was still lying there with Tanaea curled up beside him, when a familiar voice came out of the shadows.
"Well, well, well! You disappear from the Ring like mist from the slopes of Mama Ituri, and this is where I find you - with your new favourite person!"
Tovo grinned up at the shape standing above him with a viau streaking right behind his head. "Took you long enough! I thought you knew something about mysteries."
Tanaea didn't stir as Tovo carefully eased his prickling arm out from under her head and sat up.
Vou'a didn't say anything, and Tovo couldn't see his expression well, but the angle of his head said he was studying Tanaea.
"So she is god-touched? I wondered if the name might have been your idea." It wasn't only the odd eyes and the girl's bright spirit, but the vivid way that she described magic and discovered it in everything around her. Most shamans and even Shaian wizards didn't develop such sensitivity until they were much older.
"She has a bright future, that one," Vou'a said, which was more than he would usually offer. "If she can keep from falling off the train."
Tanaea had mentioned falling off the train when she first met Tovo, and now he wondered if that was a hint. He hoped it wasn't going to happen on this voyage. After Tanaea had some time to grow into her magic, she might become the sort of person who could fall off a train and find a boat waiting to catch her.
"I'd better get her back to her mother." He started to reach under her neck and knees.
But Vou'a was there before him.
"Not too old to lift a child," Tovo told him with a hard look.
"The stairs are steep," said Vou'a in soft tones. "You can take her from there."
When Tovo knocked at the door of Guite's berth and transferred Tanaea from his shoulder to hers, she didn't notice anyone standing in the corridor behind him.
"Small bed," Vou'a commented when he saw Tovo's little berth. He brushed his hand over the blanket Tovo had brought with him.
"We'll have to be creative," said Tovo. He untied his grass skirt and hung it on a hook on the wall, then hopped onto the bed and held out his arms.
He wanted to touch and taste, mostly. His old body wouldn't be good for anything strenuous, but that didn't mean he couldn't enjoy himself. He stroked over the planes and curves of Vou'a's muscles, giving an appreciative squeeze to a still-meaty shoulder. Sometimes Vou'a would have a paunch and a comfortable layer of fat to pillow Tovo, but this time he was lean and wiry, suitable for fitting into a small bed. He smelled like sandy caves and lush jungle, with a fine man-musk more intoxicating than rum.
He looked perhaps a decade younger than Tovo - well, these days maybe it was more like two decades. Tovo didn't spend much time studying himself in mirrors. But their appearance was close enough that no one guessed at the true disparity in their ages, unless they already knew. Tovo did wonder as he licked across his husband's chest whether each mole and sun-spot was a separate choice, or if Vou'a just reached for a general pattern and let the details work themselves out.
Vou'a could look younger when he chose, and those occasions could be enjoyable, but Tovo didn't ask for it. He already had a vigorous, tireless, creative lover - he didn't need to look or feel like an old man who preyed on pretty youths.
Vou'a petted his shoulders and hair while Tovo sucked his nipples, one and then the other, until they were dark and plump. Tovo craned his head around to nibble at the spot under his ribs that always - no matter what other changes there were in his body - made Vou'a giggle, high and sharp.
"There are other children in the compartment," Tovo warned.
"Now, would I let anyone eavesdrop on our privacy?"
Tovo lifted his head to meet his husband's eyes. "There was that one time."
"Oh, Lazo thought it was just as funny as I did!"
"I'm just glad Onaya didn't hear, or we wouldn't have been welcome back."
"Ha! That's what you think. Onaya is a mother, after all."
"Don't tell me, I don't want to know."
They shifted places on the bed. Tovo looked down at himself. His gift was - well, a little puffed up, but no more than it would be on an ordinary morning. Vou'a took it in hand, thumb finding the sparking spot unerringly, and gave him a questioning look. Tovo's breath trembled and he nodded, closing his eyes as Vou'a sucked him in.
When he was younger Tovo had thought it was a courtesy that Vou'a usually chose to be small for Tovo to suck on him. He had appreciated the kindness, since he didn't enjoy the sensation of choking even though he could hold his breath for quite a long time. But when he reached the age where proud-stands did not come his way so very often, and had needed to learn new ways to find enjoyment without one, Tovo had belatedly discovered the pleasure of having his gift fully engulfed in his lover's mouth.
He rather liked the idea that all this time, Vou'a had been making a choice to benefit himself instead of - or as much as - Tovo. He liked to be able to give his husband gifts.
He lay back and enjoyed Vou'a's tongue moving freely over his soft skin, setting every nerve to tingle. He would have liked to return the favour but the space was too cramped for them to pleasure each other at the same time. He stroked the parts of Vou'a that he could reach, and when he began to feel a bit over-tender he murmured, "I want you in me."
Vou'a pulled his mouth free and grinned at him. "You always want that."
"Yes, I do. So come on, old man, doesn't your eel want to swim into my cave?"
Vou'a cackled again and they re-arranged themselves on the bed, Vou'a curled on his side behind Tovo. The tiny tub of coconut oil in Tovo's bilum was within easy reach. Vou'a warmed a fingerful quickly and used it to tease Tovo open. Not that much coaxing was needed, but it was always enjoyable, and Tovo sighed happily into his rolled-up blanket. Then Vou'a patted his hip and knee to tell him how to move, lined himself up, and pushed home with a sharp thrust that made Tovo gasp. Vou'a was, of course, the perfect size to fill Tovo without needing any special contortions.
This, too, was a pleasure that had changed over time. The sharp peaks of sobbing delight from Tovo's youth had given way to a more subtle appreciation. This secret inner part of his body had connections that affected every other part, and if Tovo let himself float he could feel the sensation echoing from his head to his toes, like the patterns waves made as they moved around a pillar of rock. He tipped his head back against Vou'a's shoulder and let the waves splash through him.
Vou'a didn't always come to his own pinnacle when they did this. Sometimes he would just keep going, resting for a while and then starting to move again, past the point where Tovo thought he could endure. Those times he could often feel the echoes ring through his body even days later. Other times, one of the rest periods would quietly turn into sleep and Tovo would wake later, usually with his husband curled behind him but not inside. But there were definitely times when the pattern of building to a finish held its own particular satisfaction, even when it wasn't Tovo's finish.
He held the lip at the edge of the bed to push back against Vou'a's thrusts and wondered which sort of lovemaking this would be. For a while he thought it was going to be one of the long quiet ones, as Vou'a's movements had a meditative rhythm to them, smooth and easy. His arm curled around Tovo's hip to stroke softly over his stick and stones.
But just as the oil was thinning out and Tovo wondered if he should reach for the tub again, Vou'a made a small noise and began to push in more emphatically. He shifted, pressing Tovo onto his front and driving in from above. He grew bigger too, making Tovo whimper with a mixture of delight and discomfort as his creaky old body tried to make room. He could feel the edge of the terrifying truth that was always there between them, that this person he shared his body with was a god, powerful and implacable and never entirely knowable.
Vou'a's hard pants sent little gusts between Tovo's shoulder blades as he pushed in harder and faster, with a pinching grip on his hipbones. Tovo bit his lip and held steady as much as he could, refusing to run from the burn building inside him. At last, with a long groan, Vou'a gave three hard jerks and held still, trembling a little. Then he sagged to the side, his forehead pressed to the back of Tovo's neck. There was wetness there.
Tovo waited while the great swells sloshing through his body gradually calmed to softer ripples. His hips as well as his backside would remember this for a few days.
"That will teach you," said Vou'a in a husky growl, "to go flying off without telling anyone where."
Well, yes, Tovo supposed, it would teach him exactly that. He drifted off to sleep feeling very thoroughly rewarded.